Access plans

Particularly suitable for:

• organisations seeking funding
• local authorities
• any public site needing to balance access with a heritage or habitat conservation element

Access plans are often developed as part of funding applications to organisations such as the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and they are useful for any organisations who own or manage sites that are open to the public to help identify priorities for action.

The Sensory Trust's approach to developing access plans is to evaluate access in the widest sense; to look at the overall user experience and how that can be improved and enhanced to create a 'sense of place' for all visitors. This includes people who currently do not use the site: under-represented groups such as older people, disabled adults and children, people with learning disabilities or difficulties, young people and people with mental health problems. Accessible toilets and ramps alone won't improve the experience of a place; in order to create great places to live in and to visit there is a need to combine technical aspects of accessibility with an understanding of 'sense of place'.

Our access plans also highlight the successful, or potentially successful elements of a site. Many access audits concentrate solely on the negative aspects of a place that require repairs or improvements; they tend to miss out on the opportunity to collect information on what is already great about the place and how this can be built upon.

We also carry out site access evaluations and undertake site visits to establish current access and any related issues such as habitat and heritage conservation, the result of which are then presented in a report. Using the recommendations from the report to feed into the management and conservation plans will ensure that a balance is reached between maintaining the habitat required and creating a place that all visitors will enjoy regardless of their age, ability or social/cultural background.

We are pleased to say that to date all the project bids that we have produced access plans for have been successful in their funding applications.

Guideline fee for Access Planning: £5k - £10k

Access Planning can be economically combined with a Sensory Richness Assessment

Case study: Weston Park, Sheffield

Working for Sheffield City Council, Sensory Trust was involved in producing an Access Plan and Audience Development Plan for Weston Park, the first municipal park to be created in Sheffield, for their HLF bid to restore the physical layout of the park to its original 19th Century design.

It was also to be a park for the future and so we spent time in the park reviewing physical aspects of the site, but also observing people to get an idea of current users and activities. Watching how people interacted with the park; what were the popular routes, the main activities, age groups and so on. The park is situated between university buildings, a children’s hospital, has a museum within its grounds, and is within minutes of large residential areas. However, busy main roads on two sides of the park presented problems for some people living in the area. We consulted with ethnic minority communities, older people living in residential homes, people with visual impairments, staff at the hospital, people on site and the gay, lesbian and bisexual group at the university.

As part of this project, we ran a Healthy Living workshop at a health centre close to the park and invited staff and users of the centre to come along and look at ways in which access could be improved to increase the use of the park in local health initiatives such as healthy walks.

The project was awarded just over £2m by HLF in March 2006

Case study: Bodmin Beacon, Cornwall

Sensory Trust carried out a site evaluation of this area to address access issues as part of the North Cornwall District Council’s new management plan. They were keen to look at all aspects of access: physical, sensory, intellectual and social/cultural.

We assessed the routes, user activities, features such as the obelisk, picnic area, car parking, signage, information (on and off-site) and so on. We then produced a report based on our findings, providing recommendations on how to improve certain aspects as well as how to utilise the best features of the site to promote it.

As a result various improvements have already been made; the site’s website now provides information on access and facilities on site, including accessible picnic tables and RADAR locks. An events list has been put together based on a community consultation questionnaire that was available via the website.